Castle of Fanjeaux, ( Castèl de Fanjau or Fanjaus)

+ Prouille

Fanjeaux (Occitan: Fanjaus) is a village and commune in the Aude
department of the Languedoc. In the medieval period Fanjeaux was
a large castrum in the Lauragais and an important centre of Cathar
belief. It was then surrounded by a moat and defended by ramparts
with fourteen towers ("tours"). Two entries serve as reminders
of the medieval gates which controlled entry into the town. Like
most Languedoc castra it had a large castle (Château fort)
within its walls - considered a "paradise" by one troubadour.
Almost nothing of it remains today.

In 1204 Esclaremond de Foix received the Cathar Consolamentum at
the Château here in the presence of her brother, the Count
of Foix. The site of the Château hall where the ceremony took
place is now marked by a Catholic Dominican chapel, supposedly marking
the site of one of Saint Dominic's miracles.

You can trace the old city walls and surrounding dry moat, now
marked by a road. An outbuilding belonging to the new Château
(13th century) also survives and according to a dubious Dominican
tradition once served as Saint Dominic's Fanjeaux residence.

Google Maps

Location

Fanjeaux is located in the Aude Department of the Languedoc, west
of Carcassonne.

In the medieval period Fanjeaux was culturally and strategically
important, overlooking the plain of Lauragais, and connecting it
to the Razes. The most direct road from Carcassonne
passed through Fanjeaux on its way to Mirepoix, an important market
town. Fanjeaux, like Carcassonne
and Mirepoix, was a centre of Cathar belief.

Two different roads connect the town of Fanjeaux to the nearby
convent of Prouille
(Occitan Prouilhe). Signposts direct drivers to a modern tree-lined
road that curves its way down the hill to Fanjeaux. This road is
therefore used by tourists. A more direct smaller road is nominally
for farm vehicles, but all the locals use it, so it is far busier
than the main route.

History

In Roman times a temple to Jupiter (Jove) stood at the highpoint
of the town, next to a lake. (Lakes on the top of hills are not
common phenomena and this one was presumably considered sufficiently
remarkable that it was attributed to the King of the gods). The
modern name of the town comes from its Occitan name, itself derived
from the Roman name, Fanum Jovis ("Temple of Jove").
Both temple and lake are commemorated in street names. A possible
vestige of the Roman period are the four medieval town gates, placed
roughly north, south, east and west, a typical Roman arrangement.

In the medieval period Fanjeaux was a large castrum, still with
its four entries. It was surrounded by a moat and defended by a
rampart with fourteen towers. Two of the original four entries today
serve as reminders of the medieval gates which controlled entry
into the town. Like most Languedoc castra it had a large castle
within its walls, almost nothing of which remains today.

The castle of Fanjeaux, "which is like a paradise" is
mentioned the Occitan troubadour Peire Vidal in the late twelfth
century in his song "Mos cors s'alegr' ". The original
castle was built the north-western end of town and occupied by the
Durfort family. Already ruined in the late fourteenth century, it
has now completely disappeared. The site is occupied by Dominican
sisters (Dominicaines de las Sainte Famille).

Fanjeaux was a great centre of Cathar belief and home to around
50 Cathar families. Two dominant coseigneurs were Na (ie Lady) Cavaers
and Guilhem de Durfort. The town included houses for Cathar Parfaites,
including one founded by Esclaremond de Foix. According to Catholic
sources there were no fewer than ten houses of Parfaites here. In
these houses women lived communally, living the ascetic celibate
lives of Parfaites, offering education to children, food to the
poor, medicine to the sick, shelter to the aged, and refuge to the
persecuted.

Textile
workers ("Tisserands" or "Tisseyres") practised
weaving, dyeing, etc and in addition were particularly active in
promoting the ideas of Cathars (bon hominies or Good Men). Textile
workers were particularly active at Fanjeaux, and are commemorated
in one of the road names.

In 1193 Guilhabert de Castres, a Cathar bishop, settled in Fanjeaux,
where there seems to have been no incumbent Catholic priest.

In a great assembly held in 1204 at Fanjeaux, presumably in the
Hall of the Château of the Durforts, the Cathar Bishop Guilhabert
de Castres conferred the Consolamentum on four noblewomen: Esclaremond
de Foix and three women from the House of Durfort: Fays de Durfort
(mother of Sicard and Pierre de la Hille), her daughter in law Aude
de Fanjeaux (wife of Pierre de Durfort), and her close relative
Raymonde de Saint-Germain (wife of Guilhem de Durfort). The ceremony
was conducted in the presence of Esclaremond's brother, Raymond-Roger
de Foix, Count of Foix. Esclaremond was responsible for the establishment
of schools for girls and hospitals in the region. She and her sister-in-law
Philippa famously ran a House for Parfaites at Dun in the Pyrenees,
which functioned as a home for aged Parfaits and a girls' school.

A team of Cistercian legates, along with the Bishop of Osma and
Dominic de Guzman, a Spanish cannon, set out to evangelise the Lauragais
in 1206. That same year St. Dominic de Guzman, established himself
in Fanjeaux and at nearby Prouilhe where he established a community
that would later evolve into the Dominican Order. Dominic stayed
several times in Fanjeaux between 1206 and 1216) where he was the
(largely absent) parish priest, signing himself Cure de Fanjeaux
as well as Prieur de Prouille.
The lack of competent priests was a constant problem for the Catholic
Church. Most priests in the Languedoc, as elsewhere, were absent
or indolent. Others had already converted to the Cathar faith. As
one Catholic authority puts it:

At the time of St. Dominic's arrival there seems to have been
no parish priest at Fanjeaux. Indeed, not a few of the clergy
themselves were tainted with the heresy (some of the more notable
heresiarchs were apostate priests), and a very large proportion
were ignorant, lukewarm, without courage or zeal.St Dominic's Country, Lives of the Friar Saints, p 49.

One aspect of Catharism that horrified Catholics in the medieval
period and well into the twentieth century, was the prominent role
played by women. They enjoyed freedom and authority far in excess
of what churchmen thought proper. Cathar women were evangelists
and apostles just as much as men.

The part played by women in the heretic propaganda was enormous.
Those of the upper class  such as Esclairmonde [sic] de
Foix and Guiraude de Montreal  arranged meetings between
the leaders, and took an active share in the Albigensian tactics,
political as well as social. The peasant women carried messages
and acted generally as go-betweens, "un-suspected from their
very insignificance." The children often could remember no
other care, no other instruction than that of the Parfaites.St Dominic's Country, Lives of the Friar Saints, p45

One of these meetings, a public debate known as the The
Colloquy of Montréal (aka the "Conference of Montreal"
or the "Conference of Pamiers"), was held between Catholics
and Cathars in 1207. Dominic de Guzman was part of the Catholic
team. Against him were Guilhabert de Castres, and Esclaremond de
Foix, a Parfaite as well as a high-born and widely respected noblewoman.
It was at this debate that one of Dominic's acolytes, following
Saint Paul, famously told Esclaremond publicly that women were not
capable of discussing religious matters, and should restrict themselves
to women's work:

Madame, go to your spinning. This debate is no place for you.

In front of an educated Occitan audience, familiar with a much
greater degree of sexual equality, and aware of Eclaremond's reputation,
this approach probably undermined the Catholic position even before
the debate started.

These debates were held in front of independent juries who voted
at the end of the debate. Surviving records, all Catholic, suggest
that the Cathars generally won since the chroniclers restrict themselves
to producing reasons to regard the vote as invalid or unfair, or
complaining about the bias of jury members. This might explain why
Dominic's reputation is not based on contemporary records of his
success in converting Cathars by argument, but on a series of improbable
miracles.

The
Colloquy of Montréal would be the last debate between
the Cathars and the Roman Catholic Church. The Church recognised
that a more robust approach was needed. Saint Dominic, apparently
having given up on voluntary conversions, decided that force was
needed and set off for Rome. The following year Pope Innocent III
launched the Albigensian Crusade against the Cathars of the Languedoc.

Dominic induced nine Cathar women from Fanjeaux to join his new
rival establishment in nearby Prouille.
From Percin's Monumenta conventus Tolosani, we know the names
of these first nine "converts" - all from the impoverished
noblesse of the Lauraigais: Adalaïde, Raymonde de Passarin,
Richarde de Barbaira, Jordan, Guillelmine de Belpech, Curtolane,
Clarette, and Gentian. According to Dominican sources this was soon
after The
Colloquy of Montréall (although he founded his monastery
a year earlier). It is not known what his inducements were for these
first nine, but we do know that Dominic was the founder of the Dominican
Order which a few years later was conducting the Medieval Inquisition
on behalf of the papacy - apparently because Dominic's followers
were already experienced in the techniques that were to characterise
the Inquisition. Already, after 1209 we know that the Catholic Church
was dispossessing noble Cathar families and in many cases forcing
their daughters into Dominic's new convent at Prouille,
financed by the lands seized from their families. The families themselves
became refugees in their own land, known as "faidits".
Suspicions about the use of undue pressure is increased by the use
of fictions in Catholic accounts. According to Catholic sources,
Dominic achieved his initial nine conversions by one of his "miracles"
facing down a soot-black cat-like demonic apparition of terrific
size with savage eyes and formidable claws, in front of nine young
women. (The
Miracle of the Black Cat and the First Nine Dominican Nuns)

The Albigensian Crusade was preached in 1208. The Crusaders left
France in 1209 headed down the Rhone Valley to the Languedoc. The
first cities to fall were Béziers
and Carcassonne.
After the fall of Carcassonne,
their Viscount was imprisoned and soon afterwards he was dead. Some
dependant towns surrendered without a fight. Among them were Fanjeaux
as well as Albi, Castelnaudary,
Castres, Limoux, Lombers and Montréal.

Fanjeaux was taken over by the crusaders, forcing the Cathar preachers
as well as many "believer" inhabitants to flee to other
towns. The Cathar Bishop Guilhem of Castres withdrew to the castle
of Montségur, which was to become the last Cathar stronghold,
and in which he died in 1244. The new leader of the Crusade, Simon
de Montfort, recognised the strategic position of Fanjeaux and immediately
made it his headquarters.

De Montfort was at Fanjeaux shortly before the Battle
of Muret. As one Catholic source relates.

De Montfort was at Fanjeaux when, on 12 th September 1213, the
King of Aragon, with the Counts of Toulouse, Comminges, and Foix,
laid siege to the Castle of Muret, about four leagues from Toulouse.
The news was immediately carried to De Montfort, who, having guessed
the designs of the enemy, had started for Muret on the previous
day, and was hurrying to the assistance of the handful of men
who were holding the citadel against the vast army of the besiegers.
He was accompanied by St. Dominic and a number of prelates and
religious
ST. DOMINIC'S COUNTRY, LIVES OF THE FRIAR SAINTS

Dominic de Guzman became Saint Dominic in 1233 twelve years after
his death in 1221. Also in 1221 the Count of Toulouse retook Fanjeaux
along with nearby Montréal.

After twenty years of intermittent fighting throughout the Languedoc,
a peace treaty was signed in 1229 in the town of Meaux, near Paris,
officially ending the Albigensian Crusade and giving the King of
France power over the Languedoc. Under the terms of the treaty the
walls of Fanjeaux were to be pulled down and its moat filled, so
that it should no longer be a defensive fortification. (The danger
of the townspeople in the Languedoc rising up against their French
rulers was still current in the fourteenth century and flared up
periodically into the nineteenth)

From 1303 a new castle was built in Fanjeaux, to the east of the
parish church, The New Castle was a royal palace, where royal justice
was dispensed. Only one of its towers, which housed the royal prison,
still existed in the late seventeenth century. Vestiges still remain
today near to the Rue du Château and the Rue En Castel.

Château fort is French castle Castle.
Castel is Occitan for Castle

In October 1323, King Charles IV (le Bel) authorised the consuls
of Fanjeaux to build a church in the old château of the Lords
de Durfort to commemorate Dominic's book burning miracle (Le
Miracle de Feu).

As at the Ville Basse at Carcassonne and other towns deprived of
their city walls, Fanjeaux provided rich and easy pickings for The
Black Prince in 1355 when he ravaged the Languedoc. Fanjeaux was
burnt to the ground.

In the sixteenth century, the village experienced new prosperity
through the cultivation of pastel, and several hotels particuliar
in the town date from this period. One of them the Hotel Gramont
houses a photographic exhibition on the history of the Cathars.

Northeast of the parish church, are the remains of the Chapelle
des Penitents Blancs (White Penitents' chapel) built in 1596. The
Pénitents Blancs were Catholic fraternities, popular in France,
Spain and Italy, many of them established around Dominican Convents.
Penitents dressed in white hoods and robes. Hoods had just small
eye-holes and robes had special flaps at the back which could be
opened to expose the flesh. Penitents would then flagellate themselves,
as Saint Dominic did, or sometimes each other, a practice known
as "mortification of the flesh". Flails were often fitted
with iron balls or blades in order to draw blood and maximise the
pain and bloodflow.

Flagellation was often carried out in public during Holy Week.
The Penitents Blancs no longer exist in Fanjeaux and nothing remains
of their chapel except a modest plaque, though fraternities of Penitents
Blancs still exist throughout southern European cities and public
self-flagellation is still widely practised during Holy Week. Dominicans
are now more discrete about public flagellation and practice "the
discipline" in the privacy of their convents.

You can just make out the metal balls fitted
to the penitents' flails.

Northeast of the parish church, are the remains
of the White Penitents chapel, built in 1596.

The Lake of Jupiter was drained in 1934..

In 1935 the Dominicaines de la Sainte Familles (Dominican Sisters
of the Holy Family) moved into the old Dominican Convent in Fanjeaux,
on the site of Guilhem Durfort's original castle.

Pedro Berruguete
St Dominic Presiding over an Auto de fe, c. 1495
From the sacristy of the Santo Tomás church in Ávila.

Dominic (with a halo), Arnaud Amaury and
other Cistercian abbots trample helpless Cathars underfoot
- a sanitised version of the persecution of the Cathars (engraved
by A. Melaer ?)

The Cross of Toulouse (the device of the
rulers of the Languedoc in the Cathar period, who were excommunicated
for their Cathar sympathies) is still popular in Fanjeaux,
as it is throughout the Languedoc.

Saint Dominic was a great proponent of the
scourge or "discipline" to mortify the flesh. Here
he is flagellating himself with iron chains.
Penitent St. Dominic, by Alonso Florin, 1621

La procession Des Pénitents Blancs,
1583

Northeast of the parish church in Fanjeaux,
are the remains of the White Penitents' chapel, built in 1596.

Many secular fraternities of Pénitents
Blancs were founded around convents of Preachers (Dominicans)
founded by St. Dominic de Guzman.
Here modern Pénitents Blancs in traditional garb, celebrate
Holy Week in San Vicente De La Sonsierra

Things to see

Today almost nothing remains of historical interest. The temple
to Jupiter was replaced by a Christian church in early Christian
times. Today, Notre-Dame de l'Assomption stands on the site.

All that remains to show the location of
the Lake of Jupiter, or Lake of Jove.

Nothing remains of Guilhem Durfort's castle, and almost nothing
of the new Royal castle - just a couple of walls of what was once
the prison, and an outbuilding where according to legend, Saint
Dominic lived. Similarly nothing remains of the castrum walls or
of its 14 towers. You can however make out the location of the walls
and outer ditch from the road that surrounds the modern village.
Two entries also mark the medieval town gates. The house of the
Parfaites is long gone - even its location is now unknown.

A reminder of where the "new" French
castle stood.

The remnants of Saint Dominic are thin on the ground. A cross marks
the supposed spot, overlooking Prouille,
where he experienced one of his fire miracles, but the adjacent
chapel of Seignadou
is now a farm shed. The house claimed to have been his might or
might have belonged to him (the man in the Tourist Office thinks
not). The convent of the Sainte Famille survives along with its
chapel and relic, but is spectacularly unprepossessing. At least
three wooden beams are claimed to be the one that was hit by the
miraculous
book during Dominic's debate with a Cathar. (Relics are well-known
to miraculously reproduce themselves)

In French the name Dominic is spelled Dominique,
but in Occitan it is Domenge, closer to the Spanish Domingo.

The Church of Our Lady of the Assumption, (l'église Notre-Dame
de l'Assomption) is a typical example of Southern Gothic, constructed
on the site of the Roman temple of Jupiter. The present church was
built in the late thirteenth century (1278-1281). It has some interesting
features, notably the Gothic entrance with six arches, a St Roch
chapel, and a baroque monstrosity at the east end of the apse in
the chancel The foundation stone is set into a wall under the porch.
The bell tower is an octagonal tower, pierced by Gothic arches.
The interior has a remarkable baroque decoration of the eighteenth
century. Six vaulted chapels were built between the buttresses.
Up until a few years ago, the parish priest of Fanjeaux said mass
in Occitan at Christmas and on the feast of St. Roch (or St. Roque)
the patron saint of the farmers of Fanjeaux.

Fine sculpture at the Convent of the Dominicaines
de la Sainte Famille

Street of the Jews, a reminder that Jews
flourished in the Languedoc during the Cathar period. One
of the terms of the submission of the Counts of Toulouse in
1229 required by the Catholic Church was that discrimination
must be enforced against the Jews. Persecution increased under
the more conventionally Catholic Count Alphons de Poitiers,
and eventually Jews were expelled altogether.

Village Layout

Peire Vidal
My Heart Rejoices (Mos cors s'alegr'e s'esjau)

Peire Vidal (born mid-12th century) was an Occitan troubadour.
Forty-five of his songs are extant. The twelve that still have melodies
bear testament to his musical reputation.

His vida (biography) was composed about fifty years after his death
and two razos (short commentaries on specific poems) are built on
episodes from his poems. His vida says that he "was from Toulouse,
the son of a furrier":

Peire started his career, along with the troubadour Bernart Durfort,
at the court of Count Raymond V of Toulouse around 1176. He continued
there until 1190, when he left to seek another patron after quarrelling
with the count. Many of his early poems were addressed to Vierna
de Porcellet, a relative of the Count. In some poems Peire, Vierna
and Raymond form a love triangle. From Toulouse Peire went to the
court of King Alfonso II of Aragon, where he remained in good favour
until the king's death in 1196. He continued to visit the court
of Alfonso's son, Peter II In the rivalry between the rulers of
Toulouse
and Aragon, Peire took the side of Aragon.

He visited the court of King Alfonso VIII of Castile at Toledo
in 1195 and intermittently thereafter until 1201. He also stayed
for a time at the court of King Alfonso IX of León. Among
Peire's lesser patrons were Lord Guilhem VIII of Montpellier and
his wife, the Byzantine princess Eudocia Comnena (Eudokia Komnene).
William was a vassal of both Peter II and the Byzantine Emperor.)

Peire attended the Aragonese court during some of its visits to
Narbonne. The famous viscountess of Narbonne, Ermengarde, was a
notable patron of troubadours but there is no record that he wrote
songs for her.

Peire was also associated with Raimon Jaufre Barral, viscount of
Marseille and brother-in-law of Vierna. Barral's son-in-law, Hugh
of Baux, was also a patron of Peire Vidal. Below is the poem MOs
cors s'alegr'e s'esjau by the 13th century troubadour Peire Vidal
in the original Occitan, with an English translation, in which Lord
(Raimon Jaufre) Barral is mentioned.

Troubadours employed distinctive and vary varied rhyme schemes.
This one is AAABAAB, not replicated in this English translation.

Peire Vidal or Peire Vidals

Bibliothèque nationale de France MS.
12473 fol. 27

My heart rejoices
at the soft new season
and at the castle of Fanjeaux,
which is like a paradise;
for love and joy are enclosed here
and all that honour
and the true service of love encompass.

Even my most mortal enemy
becomes my good friend
if he should mention the ladies there
with honour and praise.
And since I am not among them
and must go to another region,
l sigh and languish and lament.

My beautiful Archer of Laurac,
who delights and thrills me,
has wounded me beyond Gaillac
and has shot her arrow into my heart;
and never has a wound pleased me so much,
here where I stay at Saissac
with her brothers and cousins.

l leave the Albîges for ever
and remain in the Carcasses
where the knights are courtly
and the ladies likewise,
for Loba has so conquered me
that, may God help me,
her sweet smile lingers ever in my heart.

l commend to God Montréal
and its imperial palace,
for now I return to Lord Barral,
who is so full of good renown;
and the people of Provence will soon see me again,
for no other people are so precious to me
and for this reason l will soon be among them.

One of Dominic Guzman's first acts in the Lauragais was to establish
a house for women he had induced, in ways that are not clear, to
abandon Catharism. His new house was clearly modelled on the Cathar
Houses for Parfaites. They lived communal contemplative religious
lives, supporting itinerant male preachers. The only differences
would be that they were no longer free to come and go as they pleased;
they would be expected to flog themselves regularly; and they would
henceforth require the services of priests as intercessors to God.

Dominic called himself the Prior of Prouille, but today the establishment
is referred at as a Monastery or sometimes as a Convent, but rarely
as a Priory.

The church at the village of Prouille was the église Sainte-Marie
which belonged to Na Cavaers, (co-siegneuress of Fanjeau). Somehow,
we do not know how, this came into the possession of Saint dominic.
After 1209, the Monastery of Prouille was funded by gifts of land
and property by crusaders, often land and property forcibly stripped
from local Cathar sympathisers who were left homeless and penniless,
and who are known as faidits. We know of many such dispossessed
knights. Some such faidits stripped of land in the Lauragais found
their way to Montsegur.
Most notable were the ones, burned alive for heresy at Montsegur
1244: Guilhem de LAHILLE and Bruna de LAHILLE, Bernart de SAINT-MARTIN
and Ramon de SAINT-MARTIN, India de FANJEAUX, Jean de COMBEL, Arnaud
Des
CASSES and Etienne ISARN. Simon de Montfort himself made donations
from sequestered properties. For example, on 15 may 1211, ten days
after the fall of Lavaur,
he gave Prouille a great domaine at Sauzens. His lieutenants followed
the lead of their commander, and Prouille grew immensely rich.

The nuns lived under the Rule of St. Augustine. Written Constitutions
of St. Dominic, drawn up on the lines of the oral Rule of Prouille,
were not given until 1220. Their text is preserved in a Bull of
Gregory IX. (Nov. 1236). They were modified by the fourth Master-General,
John the Teuton, and again by his successor, Blessed Humbert de
Romans.

The site for the monastery at Prouille had been indicated by
a fire-miracles at Seignadou attributed to Dominic Guzman. Prouille
seems to have provided a regular venue for fire-miracles over the
centuries, for it is the site of several unexplained incendiary
events. On the night of the 4-5th March 1715 the medieval monastery
buildings were ravaged by fire and had to be completely rebuilt.
A rebuilt monastery was entirely destroyed again in 1792 at the
Revolution, many of its stones later being taken to build houses
in Fanjeaux and Bram.

The monastery was rebuilt between 1857 and 1878. Dominican sisters
(moniales dominicaines) re-established themselves at Prouille in
April 1880. In 1885, they started constructing a basilica in the
Romano-Byzantine style (similar to that of Sacré-Cur
de Paris). It was never completed. This is a "basilica"
in the architectural sense. The term is not an honorific, as in
the Cité of Carcassonne.

On 19 August 1990, another serious fire destroyed the greater part
of the buildings but not the unfinished basilica. It still stands
unfinished, lacking many features including windows and cupolas.

Today, Prouille supports a community of some 30 Dominican sisters,
mainly elderly, with younger replacements from third-world countries.

Here is a Catholic account of the foundation of Prouille:

The Act of December 1206, by which the Bishop gave to St. Dominic
the Church of Our Lady of Prouille and the ground on each side
of it for a distance of thirty paces, was probably drawn up in
the month of August. It states that Prouille was given to be a
home for the women converted by the preachers delegated to preach
against the heretics and to repel the pestilential heresy."
No endowment was made. The tithes and first-fruits of Prouille
were to go as usual to Fanjeaux. The foundation was to be a venture
of faith. At the same time it was exempt from all charges, so
that if it received nothing it should at least be free from encumbrances.

St. Dominic lost no time. Close to the church he built, with
a sum of money contributed by Na Cavaers, a little house of rough
brick, unpretending but suitable. "He who loved poverty desired
that the building should be poor." It was speedily finished,
and on November 22, 1206, the Feast of St. Cecilia, the eldest
daughters of St. Dominic entered the Convent of Prouille. On the
Feast of St. John the Evangelist, December 27, Dominic gave them
their religious habit  a white tunic, a black veil, a cappa
or long cloak of coarse un-bleached wool. It remained thus until
in 1218; after the revelation to Blessed Reginald of Orleans,
the scapular was added to the habit of the Dominican Order.

"The primitive Rule" writes a nun of Prouille of our
own day, "given verbally to the Sisters by the holy patriarch,
was merely a short resume of the great monastic laws on poverty,
chastity, obedience, silence, perpetual abstinence, long fasts,
vigils, and the Divine Office. Rigorous enclosure was imposed.
Solitude, contemplation, accompanied by work and penance, formed
the very essence of the life of the eldest daughters of St. Dominic.
They were true contemplatives. But from the first day the Saint
gave them a precise aim for their existence of retirement and
mortification. Breathing on his children the apostolic spirit
which animated him ... he made them in their turn apostles by
incessant prayer, by daily immolation. To pray day and night;
to offer their prayers and mortifications both for the souls to
be saved and for those who were working for their salvation 
for himself first, and for all other valiant apostolic workers,
past, present, and to come  such was the special end which
Dominic the Preacher set before his first-born at Prouille, and
in them, before all who were to follow them."

It was the Grand Ordre, the Soeurs Precheresses, who prepared
the way for the Freres Precheurs [ie the Dominican friars].

The Prioress . . . was under the direct authority of Dominic,
who retained the spiritual and temporal administration of the
monastery, 'in order not to separate his dear daughters from the
future Order he contemplated founding, of which they were but
the first shoot.' He added to the title of 'Brother ' Dominic,
which he had assumed after the Council of Castelnau in 1205, that
of 'Prior of Prouille.'

in December of the same year we find Simon de Montfort, from
his Parliament at Pamiers, giving a couple of fields at Fanjeaux
to his friend, which could be exchanged against ground bordering
on that already belonging to the convent.

Colloquy of Montréal

Here is a Catholic account of the Colloquy of Montréal,
(which the author seems to think took place in 1206 rather than
1207)

A turn of the road and Montreal comes into view dominating the
illimitable plain, all rugged with low hills. Here, hot and weary,
St. Dominic entered for the first time with the Legates on that
eventful 24th July 1206, to take part in a Conference which was
to last fifteen days. As was usually the case, it was held in
the great hall of the castle.

The Chatelain of Montreal was, in 1206, that famous Amaury (or
Almeric), who perished so miserably in 1211 at the siege of Lavaur
with his sister, Giraude, a professed Catharist, and a woman of
evil life. Under their patronage, heresy and its fatal practices
had free course at Montreal. As at Servian, the seigneur set the
example, frequented the heretic gatherings in the houses of the
Parfaits, both male and female, and "adored " his hosts
with the rest of the assembly. ....

At the news of a solemn Conference at Montreal crowds flocked
to the town, chief among whom were four heresiarchs, Arnauld and
Pons Jourdain of Verfeil, the celebrated Guilabert de Castres
of Fanjeaux, a most active and influential Parfait, and a certain
Benoit de Termes,
"deacon" for the district of Carcassonne,

The Catholic champions were the three Papal Legates, the Cistercian
abbots, and the two Spanish dignitaries. For a couple of weeks
the missionaries preached, fervently exhorting the Catholics to
be true to their faith; while doctrinal Conferences were held
every evening with the Catharist leaders in presence of an immense
and eager crowd. Four arbiters were chosen  all heretics
 two knights, two bourgeois, to decide which side gained
the victory in argument, and the battle was arrayed. Arnauld de
Verfeil began the attack, and was at once carried away by abuse
of the Holy Roman Church, which he declared to be the church of
the devil and all her doctrines equally diabolical. She was Babylon,
drunk with the blood of the martyrs and saints of Christ. Neither
our Lord nor His apostles had determined the Order of Mass as
it was said to-day....

It is suspect on a number of counts, disguising the murder of Lord
Amaury of Montreal and his of his sister Lady Giraude of Lavaur,
at Lavaur
in 1210 - a scandal and a war crime even by the standards of the
thirteenth century. Both prisoners of Amaury was summarily hanged
and Giraude was murdered by being thrown down a well. Impartial
contemporary sources tell us that Lady Giraude was known for her
generosity and hospitality. It is also worth noting that in reality
the arbiters were invariably either the sponsors of the debate,
or selected for their independence and pre-approved by both sides.

It is also significant that the Catholic Church was being described
as "[the Whore of] Babylon, drunk with the blood of the martyrs
and saints of Christ." two or three years before the
start of the Albigensian Crusade, which suggests that Cathars were
already being heavily persecuted before 1207.

The reference is to Revelation 17:4-6 "
... and I saw a woman sit upon a scarlet coloured beast, full
of names of blasphemy, having seven heads and ten horns. And
the woman was arrayed in purple and scarlet colour, and decked
with gold and precious stones and pearls, having a golden
cup in her hand full of abominations and filthiness of her
fornication: And upon her forehead was a name written a mystery:
Babylon The Great, the mother of harlots and abominations
of the Earth.. And I saw the woman drunken with the blood
of the saints, and with the blood of the martyrs of Jesus:
and when I saw her, I wondered with great admiration."

The same connection was later made by Protestants
at the Reformation. In the illustration below the papacy,
representing the Catholic Church, is shown as the great whore
of Babylon.

(Coloured version of the Great Whore of Babylon
illustration from Martin Luther's 1534 translation of the
Bible, published in 1534, from the workshop of Lucas Cranach)

Disputes were part of intellectual life in
the medieval period (and still are at ancient Universities).
Often with independent judges, sometimes in public. Here Catholics
are debating with Jews, just as they debated with Waldensians
and Cathars. In each case persecution followed when Catholics
failed to win the arguments.

Doctors at the University of Paris.
Catholics also debated between themselves, at least until
the losing side started being burned as heretics.

Miracle of the Sheaves
(Miracles Des gerbes)

The following is a Catholic account of the Miracle of the Sheaves
in by C. M. Antony in ST. DOMINIC'S COUNTRY

Osma, St. Dominic, and twelve Cistercian abbots, who had answered
the appeal of the Abbot of Citeaux, left Carcassonne
early to walk barefoot to Montréal,
where one of the most important Conferences of their spiritual
Crusade was to be held. On the way, about three miles from their
destination, they passed a field beside the dusty, shadeless road,
where the early harvest was being gathered in. St. Dominic, the
first to perceive the reapers (who belonged to the parish of Arzens),
rebuked them sternly for working on a holy-day. The men assumed
a threatening attitude, and one, standing ready to strike him
with his sickle, answered defiantly that it was no holy-day, that
the corn must be reaped, and that they intended to do it without
interference from any priest. Looking down, the man suddenly perceived
the sheaf he held in his hand was red with blood." He thought
at first he had cut himself with his reaping-hook, but there was
no wound in his hand. 'What can it be? ' he asked the other peasants.
Then, all, hastily examining their sheaves, found them also stained
with blood, though their hands were scatheless. God doubtless
permitted this prodigy for the greater glory of His servants in
this region, particularly for that of Blessed Dominic." It
is interesting to note in this connection that St. John the Baptist
was held in horror by the heretics, who looked upon him as an
evil spirit and antichrist. The spot on which the miracle occurred
is today marked by a small wayside shrine, erected in 1888 by
the V. R. Fr. Larocca, Master-General of the Dominican Order,
and blessed on 8th October of the same year by the Bishop of Carcassonne,
in commemoration of the undying tradition of the " Field
of the Sheaves." A large picture of the miracle hangs in
the Parish Church of Montreal.

IN ST. DOMINIC'S COUNTRY, LIVES OF THE FRIAR SAINTS p 34

"Field of the Sheaves." The picture
of the miracle in Saint Vincent's, the Parish Church of Montreal

This is another of Saint Dominic's miracles that today receives
very little publicity, since, mysteriously, God seems to softened
his line on Sunday working, once a capital crime, but now not even
a minor sin. (The painting above, in the Church at Montreal, is
difficult to see and had to be specially lit in order to take a
photograph in August 2014)

Miracle of the Sheaves

Monument in the "Field of the Sheaves."
on the D119

at N43.20810, E2.18275

Miracle of the Storm

("Miracle de l'orage")

The following is a Catholic account of the Miracle of the Storm
in by C. M. Antony in ST. DOMINIC'S COUNTRY

A few hundred yards further on, on the other side of the road,
is another shrine commemorating a miracle of later date which
took place on one of St. Dominic's many journeys between Montreal
and Carcassonne.
It is known as the Miracle of the Storm. The Saint was preaching
one sultry afternoon to a group of peasants working in the surrounding
fields and vineyards, when the muttering of thunder was heard,
the heavy sky grew dark with clouds, and began to pulse with lightning.
One of the sudden, terrible storms which so often destroyed a
harvest in half an hour was about to break. His hearers implored
Dominic to pray that the tempest might be averted. He bade them
not to fear, for not a hair of their heads would be wet with the
rain, which had begun to fall in torrents a little way off, and
that none of their crops should suffer from it. They remained
till his sermon was finished, and departed, untouched by the storm,
to find that the Saint's prophecy had been fulfilled, and that
their fields had taken no harm. According to local tradition,
no rain has fallen ever since on the spot, now marked by a tall
cross surmounting a shrine, round which is planted a little grove
of cypress and yew.

Wreathed in trails of flowering periwinkle. It is perhaps one
of the most beautiful, though one of the least known, Holy Wells
in the world. Here Dominic and his companions would turn aside
from the dusty road to rest by the fountain beneath the spreading
trees, and there slake their thirst ; "for," says Gerard
de Frachet, "when the Saint, weary and harassed with cares,
was going to stay in a house belonging to seculars, he first drank
deeply at some fountain or neighbouring spring, fearing lest his
thirst, increased by the fatigue of the journey, should scandalise
his hosts. For his liveliest fear was ever that he might become
an occasion of scandal to those around him ; this he dreaded above
all. "The ice-cold water  to which have often been
ascribed miraculous properties  is still as deliciously
fresh and clear as it was in the time of our Saint, springing
from the heart of the limestone rock.

A turn of the road and Montreal comes into view dominating the
illimitable plain, all rugged with low hills. Here, hot and weary,
St. Dominic entered for the first time with the Legates on that
eventful 24th July 1206, to take part in a Conference which was
to last fifteen days. As was usually the case, it was held in
the great hall of the castle.

IN ST. DOMINIC'S COUNTRY, LIVES OF THE FRIAR SAINTS p 34

The tradition that rain never falls on the spot cannot be wholly
reliable, since rain fell there on the day that the adjacent photograph
was taken in September 2014.

Monument to the Miracle of the Storm
("Miracle de l'orage") on the D119
at N43.20788, E2.17654

Dominic's Miracle of the Book

(Le Miracle de Feu

aka le Miracle de la Cédule)

One legend relates that when Dominic's followers threw his speaking
notes into a fire after
The Colloquy of Montréal, the text proved so holy that
the flames would not burn them. The papers flew up into the air.
In later versions Dominic challenged Guilhabert de Castres in public
during the course of the debate. Catholic and Cathar books belonging
to Dominic and Guilhabert were both thrown into a fire. Dominic's
survived the flames hovering in the air above the fire, while Guilhabert's
burned like any other book.

There are a number of increasingly impressive accounts of the miracle.
In this version below the author has conflated the The
Colloquy of Montréal with the earlier legend of events
in Fanjeaux, concealing the failure to win over the independent
judges at Montréal
and simultaneously providing an excuse for burning other people's
books.

"One day a famous disputation was being held at Fanjeaux
and a large number of the faithful and unbelievers had gathered.
Many of the former had written their own books containing arguments
and authorities in support of the faith. After these books had
been inspected, the one written by Blessed Dominic was commended
above the others and unanimously accepted. Accordingly, his book
and that produced by the heretics were presented to three judges
chosen with the assent of both sides, with the understanding that
the side whose book was chosen as the more reasonable defense
should be regarded as having the superior faith.

After much wrangling, the judges came to no decision. Then they
decided to cast both books into a fire and, if either of them
was not burned, it would be held as containing the true faith.
So they built a huge fire and cast the books therein. The heretical
book was immediately consumed by the fire, but the one written
by the man of God, Dominic, not only escaped burning, but, in
the sight of all, leaped far from the fire. For a second and a
third time, it was cast into the fire, but each time it leaped
back and thereby openly testified to the truth of its doctrine
and the holiness of the person who had written it."

From the Libellus of Blessed Jordan of Saxony.

In yet later versions all this took place before impartial judges
who unanimously agreed that Dominic had won the debate.

The Miracle of the Book
Dominican Church of SS Sisto e Domenico in Rome

In yet another form of the evolving legend, the episode had evolved
into an ordeal by fire in which Dominic's text lodged on a roof
beam visibly singeing it. Several sites in Fanjeaux, including the
village church and a Dominican chapel claim to posses the very beam,
still bearing its miraculous burn marks.

One beam from the 'Miracle of fire' is now in the parish church
where the inhabitants of Fanjeaux carried it in 1820 after the collapse
of the chapel where the miracle had taken place. This chapel was
located at the Preaching Brothers' convent. The Preaching Brothers'
convent now belongs to the Dominicaines Des Sainte Famille, who
miraculously, also possess the beam from the Miracle of Fire, housed
in its own "chapel" - more like a small external niche.

The idea that holy books can miraculously be distinguished from
others is an old one. The same legend is associated with the selection
of books for the biblical canon at Nicaea in 324. As Voltaire observed
in his Dictionnaire Philosophique:

It is reported in the supplement of the council of Nicaea that
the fathers, being very perplexed to know which were the cryphal
or apocryphal books of the Old and New Testaments, put them all
pell-mell on an altar, and the books to be rejected fell to the
ground. It is a pity that this eloquent procedure has not survived.

The Château de Durfort

The following Catholic account relates how the Château de
Durfort was sold to Dominicans, who had a chapel there - on the
site of the hall where the miracle of the book supposedly occurred.
When the Château and its hall were destroyed by the Black
Prince a few years later, a Dominican monastery (with a new chapel)
was built on the site.

The hall where this miracle took place was sold in 1346, by the
family of De Durfort, to one of their kinsmen, then Provincial
of the Dominicans of Toulouse, in order that a chapel might be
built on the spot. "Considering," says the deed of sale,
" that by virtue from on High a miracle has been wrought
by fire in this house in honour of Blessed Dominic and of the
Holy Faith . . . desiring with all our hearts that a chapel should
be constructed and an altar to Blessed Dominic erected here to
the glory of God, of His blessed Mother Mary, of all the Saints,
and the monastery of Prouille,
we sell," &c. The chapel had already been built, for
ten days later the Provincial and the Prior of Prouille
took possession of it "in the presence of numerous friars
and the whole population of Fanjeaux." Two years later the
first convent of friars was founded in Fanjeaux, but this building
having been destroyed by the Black Prince  the English ravaged
the town most cruelly  the convent was rebuilt close to
the Chapel of St. Dominic, on a site specially granted by Charles
V. It contained a cloister forty-two paces square, of which no
traces now remain, though the restored monastery buildings still
exist, and form at present the Presbytery of Fanjeaux. To the
Chapel of St. Dominic was removed the beam on which the unburnt
book had rested, and which had been religiously preserved at Prouille
since 1209. It was hung by iron chains from the roof, at a height
of 22 feet from the floor. The hearth-stone on which the fire
had burnt was also preserved, and sealed beneath the altar. It
was the custom of intending postulants of Prouille
to come here and kiss this stone on the day preceding their entrance
into the convent. At the Revolution, of course, all was confiscated
or destroyed ; the chapel was razed, and the convent seized by
the State; but the beam and stone  being "worthless"
 were placed in the Parish Church of Fanjeaux, where they
may be seen today in one of the north chapels, the latter sealed
into the wall beneath the former. Below the beam is the following
inscription :

This Gospel emerged safe from the greedy flames.
In the name of the Lord Jesus 's command

C. M. Antony, ST. DOMINIC'S COUNTRY, LIVES OF THE FRIAR SAINTS

Today the building is owned by the Dominicaines de la Sainte Famille
and they have their own "Chapelle du Miracle". Both Church
and Chapel purport to have not only the beam, but also the hearth
stone on which the miracle occurred.

Detail of The Coronation of the Virgin by
Fra Angelico, executed around 1434-1435, now in the Musée
du Louvre of Paris, France. In this cartoon strip version
Dominic gives the Carthars a Bible, which they try to burn,
but the Bible hovers above the fire.

Detail of The Coronation of the Virgin by
Fra Angelico, executed around 1434-1435,now in the Musée
du Louvre of Paris, France. In this version, Dominic is not
even in the room where the miracle takes place.

"Chapelle du Miracle" at the Convent
of the Dominicaines de la Sainte Famille

Dominicaines de la Sainte Famille now occupy
the site of the Château de Durfort

"Chapelle du Miracle" at the Convent
of the Dominicaines de la Sainte Famille

The Miracle of Seignadou

Le
Seignadou is a promontory in Fanjeaux, with a panoramic view of
the Black Mountains, Mount Alaric and the Pyrenees. Saint Dominic
claimed to have experienced one of his many miracles here - he experienced
a surprising number of unremarkable miracles (like seeing off a
black black cat). This one sounds remarkably similar to witnessing
a case of ball-lightning. Ball lightning tends to occur in certain
places in volcanic areas, which might also account for the fact
that the monastery keeps burning down inexplicably.

In any case, for Dominic it was a miracle and he was convinced
that God was telling him where to found his new monastery. He saw
the the fire-ball at the tiny village of Prouille,
so it was Prouille that he appropriated for his new monastery. The
name of the promontory from which he witnessed the fireball, comes
from Senhador, Occitan for "sign of the Lord".

Here is a Catholic account of the miracle.

On the night of 2ist-22nd July 1206, the eve of the Feast of
St. Mary Magdalene, St. Dominic passed through the village towards
the spot, which has ever since been called the Signadou. Just
beyond the spot where the north gate then stood, a jutting angle
of rock from which the ground falls away on two sides in a precipitous
descent, forms a wide shelf from which a marvellous view may be
gained.

....

And it was at night that St. Dominic continually came hither
to pray for the souls he was seeking in this fair country unrolled
like a map beneath his feet.

The hours passed by as he knelt there upon that memorable July
night, his heart full of his great desire to found a convent where
the women he rescued from the clutches of Satan might worship
God in peace....

Suddenly, as he gazed out into the night, he saw a globe of fire
like a meteor dart from the star-sown sky and circle thrice over
a spot not a mile from the foot of the hill on which he knelt.
Then it fell upon the ground and rested there. He knew it for
what it was  the Sign of God for which he had so greatly
longed, for which he had scarcely dared to pray. On the spot where
it had fallen his convent was to rise. Realising this clearly,
thanking God with all his heart, he yet prayed with holy prudence
that if it were really what he believed, the fire might again
fall from Heaven a second and a third time, that he might know
of a surety that it was the spot which the Lord had chosen. His
prayer was granted. Returning on the two following nights St.
Dominic again saw the same prodigy, and understanding, took courage.
He had recognised the spot by the light of those southern stars,
and knew well to whose intercession he owed its choice. For the
Sign of God had fallen upon the little sanctuary of Notre Dame
de Prouille.

The rocky shelf on which he knelt has ever since been called
the Signadou. In July 1538, a great cross was erected here for
parochial processions. This having been destroyed at the Revolution
was replaced in 1860 by the present cross of white marble, upon
the pedestal of which was chiselled the ancient votive inscription
:

[my loose translation: "St. Dominic contemplating
in his mind the construction of the Monastery of Prouille
and overlooking a possible places to build it, spent a night
in fervent prayer, and saw a great fiamme descend at the place
where this famous Monastery is now built; from which he deduced
that God wanted him to build on the spot honoured by fire from
heaven. The inhabitants of Fanjeaux raised in memory and honour
of this great Saint an oratory called the Seignadou, in which
there is a cross of white stone.] "

Close by stands a shrine in the angle of a wall surmounted by
a lofty stone statue of St. Dominic, gazing across the plain to
Prouille.
Upon the shrine, restored in our own day, is carved the blessing
sent by Pope Pius IX. in 1868 :

" Deus vos benedicat et liber et a fulgure et tempestate"

["God bless you, and every free man, from lightning and
tempest" ]

C. M. Antony, ST. DOMINIC'S COUNTRY, LIVES OF THE FRIAR SAINTS
p 58

"Miracle of Signadou" a mosaic
at Signadou

Statue of Saint Dominic at Signadou

The Miracle of Signadou

The Miracle of the Black Cat
and the First Nine Dominican Nuns

No chronicle relates any of the compelling arguments that Dominic
used to convert those he considered "heretics". As at
Montréal,
and in the "field of the sheaths", this deficit is made
good by a convent miracle of the sort that impressed medieval Catholics,
but modern theologians not quite so much. It may be that these miracles
conceal the fact that no genuine voluntary converts were made at
all. There were at most very few converts, even according to primary
Catholic sources, and their conversions might well have been secured
by force (as they certainly were after 1209, when refusal to recant
was punished by death, as at Lavaur
and Minerve).

Here is a sympathetic Catholic account of how Dominic secured the
conversion of nine young women who had been educated by Cathars
at Fanjeaux.

A few days after the Conference [The
Colloquy of Montréal], St. Dominic, after an evening
sermon in the open air  probably in the market-place 
to the greater part of the people of Fanjeaux, entered the little
church hard by to spend an hour in prayer. As he knelt there the
door opened, and a group of young women approached him as the
Greeks of old came to St. Philip, with that petition on their
lips which is the unuttered, unconscious cry of the world: "Sir,
we would see Jesus." Falling at his feet, they begged this
new apostle to guide them. "Servant of God," they exclaimed,
" help us ! If what you have preached today be true, we have
long been deceived by the spirit of error, for up till now we
have always believed in the Good Men whom you call heretics. We
have always held to their doctrine, and now your sermon leaves
us in cruel uncertainty. Servant of God, we beseech you, pray
that the Lord will make the true Faith known to us, because in
that Faith we desire to live, to die, and to be saved."

He rose from his knees. The hour had come perhaps sooner than
he had dared to hope ! Here were the first-fruits of his preaching
; here was the first sheaf of that world-wide harvest which was
to be garnered in his Threefold Order. There in the old church
built by a more faithful generation Dominic spoke burning words
of courage and counsel to these young souls who had come to him
for help. They were nine, all pupils of the Parfaites, of good
family, eager to hear the truth. How could he help them? It was
easy to speak, to instruct and answer questions, but how could
he protect them when they went back to those enemies of the Faith,
who would instantly strive to root up the good seed, to undo all
that he had already done? One thing was certain: if he wished
to preserve his converts he must take them completely away from
their surroundings; he must provide them with a refuge into which
no heretic could penetrate. As he spoke to the young girls, these
thoughts kindling in his heart, a truly nerve-shaking apparition
rushed upon them out of the shadows. A hideous nondescript animal
"of terrific size," catlike, with savage eyes and formidable
claws, a creature " as black as the chimney of hell from
whence it issued," burst into the church, to the terror of
the women, and for the space of an hour circled round them in
a manner which, judging by the ancient chronicles, must have been
as alarming as it was revolting. Finally, after uttering horrible
cries, with one mighty bound the demon rushed up the bell-ropes
and disappeared in the darkness of the tower, leaving behind him
an odour so terrible " that not all the balms of Arabia could
overcome it." "See," said Dominic, "you can
judge by this apparition which God has permitted, of him whose
slaves you have been until now." Before they left him his
visitors declared their firm faith in his doctrine, and their
resolution to be guided by him in future.

ST. DOMINIC'S COUNTRY, LIVES OF THE FRIAR SAINTS, pp 54-5

Dominic bravely seeing off a malodorous,
black, catlike, demonic apparition of terrific size with savage
eyes and formidable claws - which escapes up the bell-rope.

In later versions of the legend the nine young women become established
Parfaites, making the miracle even more impressive. Soon afterwards,
the Inquisitor Conrad of Marburg - an infamous torturer - reported
that he had uncovered a satanic cult which worshiped the devil and
a diabolical black cat.

Inexplicably, Dominic's Miracle of the Black Cat, once so famous,
receives very little publicity today, although demonic black cats
went on to be successively implicated not only with Cathars, but
"Lucifarians", Knights Templars, witches and other "heretics"
up the Enlightenment. The fantasy of the evil role of black cats
was to be further formalised a few years later. Pope Gregory IX
issued a bull, Vox in Rama (A voice in Rama) condemning a
supposed German heresy known as Luciferianism, imagined to be a
form of devil worship. The bull was issued to King Henry, son of
Emperor Frederick II, in June 1233 and subsequently also to Archbishop
Siegfried III of Mainz demanding the use all efforts to stop the
practice. The Bull was largely inspired by reports from Conrad of
Marburg. It describes in detail the initiation rites of the sect,
featuring a toad as large as a dog, an emaciated pale man, a communal
meal, and the statue of a black cat that would come to life, and
which would be kissed on the buttocks. After the ritual was over,
the candles would be extinguished and the sect would engage in wild
homosexual orgies. When eventually the candles were relit, a man
from a dark corner of the room appears "from the loins upward,
shining like the sun. His lower part is shaggy like a cat".
After a litany-like dialogue between the cat and the cult members,
the meeting concludes.

Like Dominic's miracle, this Papal Bull has been heavily downplayed
since the early twentieth century, to the extent that populist Catholic
websites now regard it as a fraud, though historians of repute still
cite it as genuine.

Cat-like demonic apparition - an artists
impression

A resident near the church at Fanjeaux has
created an image of a cat-like demonic apparition which sits
on his windowsill.

Saint Dominic preaching
(in his house at Fanjeaux ?)

"It is because St. Dominic was pre-eminently
a warrior, because he was rigid and uncompromising as regards
the things of God, that he is looked upon as a forbidding,
frowning figure by the historian."

C. M. Antony, ST. DOMINIC'S COUNTRY, LIVES
OF THE FRIAR SAINTS p xvii

Saint Dominic by Oswulf. In Catholic art,
Saint Dominic is recognisable by a star over his head as well
as his saintly auriole. He is generally accompanied by a dog
with a lighted torch in its mouth, and is often shown carrying
a chaplet of beads. According to a story invented long after
his death, the Virgin Mary gave him such prayer beads during
the Battle
of Muret in 1213.

The Miracle of the Assassins - Cross of Sicaire

Once again a miracle permits Dominic to make conversions without
having to produce an argument or refute the arguments of the Cathars.

Here, he engages a group of peasant "heretics" working
in the fields who are unimpressed by his preaching and tell him
to go away, he refuses and eventually they threaten to kill him.
He welcomes martyrdom, and asks them to torture and mutilate him
as well, which causes them to lose heart and they suddenly see the
light.

The fervent desire for torture and martyrdom is a characteristic
of many, perhaps most, medieval martyrdom legends.

As in all of these miracles, they improve over the centuries so
we always have a number of different versions - The miracle of the
Storm may well preserve an earlier version of the same story. In
the version below the the peasants have mutated into dedicated assassins,
though they still carry their farming equipment.

Everyone knows the story of the would-be murderers who laid wait
for St. Dominic, knowing well which way he would come, as he descended
the hill of Fanjeaux one night after a long day's work, returning
to his brethren at Prouille;
how as he came  alone  they were smitten with awe
at the sight of him, and their weapons  the harvest implements
of peasants  fell from their shaking hands; how they cried
out to the Saint, asking him what he should have done had they
rushed upon him as they had intended, and his heroic answer: "I
should have prayed you not to kill me with a single blow, but
to prolong my martyrdom by cutting off my limbs one after another,
so that I could see them before me; by then putting out my eyes;
and, finally, by leaving all that remained of me still living
bathed in my blood. For thus I should have gained a more glorious
crown."

It was here, on this very spot, he spoke those words. This cross,
which bears no inscription, renewed throughout the centuries,
has stood here ever since.

C. M. Antony, ST. DOMINIC'S COUNTRY, LIVES OF THE FRIAR SAINTS
p 59

According to modern Dominicans, Saint Dominic also sought out humiliation
in place of martyrdom.

Brother Dominic always hoped to be martyred but thought himself
unworthy. So he fled places of honor and drew near to mistreatment,
where people would spit and throw filth at him.

Source: Dominican Sisters of St Cecila

You might notice that the Cross of Sicaire that marks the very
spot of the assassin miracle is itself miraculous. At different
times it takes different forms and stands in different places. See
the photographs above. There is another Cross of Sicaire outside
the church in Fanjeaux.

Genuine murder attempts against Dominican
Inquisitors were generally successful, as at Avignonet
in 1242. In Italy the much hated Dominican Inquisitor Peter
of Verona was murdered in 1252 and is now known as Saint Peter
Martyr. He is generally shown with a cleaver through his head.
This photograph shows an image of him in the Cloister of San
Pedro de Verona, Villa de Etla, Oaxaca, Mexico with an axe
rather than a leaver.

Paper presented at a meeting of the International Commission of
the Dominican Order, Prouilhe, France, April, 2006 celebrating the
coming 800th anniversary of the foundations of the Order, largely
about the founding of Prouilhe.

GUIDED TOURS OF CATHAR CASTLES OF THE LANGUEDOC

You can join small exclusive guided tours of Cathar Castles
led by an English speaking expert on the Cathars
who lives in the Languedoc
(author of www.cathar.info)

Selected Cathar Castles. Accommodation provided. Transport
Provided.

Cathar Origins, History, Beliefs.
The Crusade, The Inquisition, and Consequences

The chemin de Saint Dominic (right)
with Fanjeaux in the distance (left)

the "House of Saint Dominic" in
Fanjeaux

the "House of Saint Dominic" in
Fanjeaux

Looking from Seignadou toward the Pyrenees

Looking from Seignadou toward the Bugerach

Looking from Seignadou toward Montreal

Looking from Seignadou toward Prouille

Detail of a Panel showing Saint Dominic,
part of the large 'Demidoff Altarpiece' made for the high
altar of San Domenico in Ascoli Piceno, east central Italy.Dominic
wears the winter uniform of his order, a white habit and black
cloak. The attributes that identifiy him as Saint Dominic
are the lily (a symbol of chastity), and the book (which refers
to his role as instructor).

Saint Dominic fagellating himself in front
of a statue of the crucified Jesus which squirtis blood from
His wounds - one of Dominic's nine modes of prayer - shown
in "St Dominic's House" in Fanjeaux.

Saint Dominic prostrating himself before
a statue of the crucified Jesus squirting blood from his wounds
- one of Dominic's nine modes of prayer - shown in "St
Dominic's House" in Fanjeaux.

In the House of the Dominicaines of the Sainte
Famille (on the site of the Convents of the Dominican Brothers
- itself on the site of the Durfort Chateau)

In the House of the Dominicaines of the Sainte
Famille (on the site of the Convents of the Dominican Brothers
- itself on the site of the Durfort Chateau)

Pedro Berruguete
St Dominic Presiding over an Auto de fe, c. 1495
From the sacristy of the Santo Tomás church in Ávila.
(detail showing Dominic presiding over the burning of Cathars)

St. Dominic, 1515, Giovanni Bellini
The National Gallery, London. The attributes that identifiy
him as Saint Dominic are the lily (a symbol of chastity),
and the book (which refers to his role as instructor).